Texas Border Business
RIO GRANDE VALLEY – Junior Kevin Stevens and junior Edinburg alum John Henry Gonzalez combined on a one-hitter to lead The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley Vaqueros baseball team past the Kansas State University Wildcats 5-0 in front of a season-opening crowd of 1,633 on Friday at UTRGV Baseball Stadium.
This is the Vaqueros’ (1-0) first one-hitter since 2017 and the fourth combined one-hitter in program history. This is the program’s second one-hitter against a team currently in the Big 12 and first since Jim Proctor one-hit TCU in 1975.
Making his first collegiate start, Stevens (1-0) pitched five hitless innings, striking out nine. The only baserunner he allowed was on an error at the start of the second. Stevens retired the final 12 hitters he faced.
Gonzalez took over in the sixth and got to within two outs of a no-hitter before allowing a single to Caleb Littlejim in the ninth. Gonzalez responded by getting Zach Kokoska to ground into a double play to end the game. Gonzalez struck out four in four innings while allowing a walk and a hit batsman.
The Vaqueros got all the offense they needed in the first on an RBI-double by senior Conrado Diaz and a sacrifice fly by senior Christian Sepulveda.
The Vaqueros added two more runs in the fifth on an RBI-double by senior Andy Atwood and a sacrifice fly by senior Elijah Alexander.
Diaz reached base all four times, going 2-for-2 with a walk. Atwood finished 2-for-4.
Those runs were against Wildcats (0-1) starter Carson Seymour (0-1), who lasted 4.1 innings, allowing six hits and three walks.
The Vaqueros added a run in the eighth on a single by junior Jacob Hirsh.
UTRGV and Kansas State play the second game of this four-game series on Saturday at 2 p.m. Gates open at 1. Fans can redeem their ticket from Friday and Saturday’s baseball games at the UTRGV Fieldhouse box office for $1 off tickets to the UTRGV men’s basketball game against Seattle U on Saturday at 7 p.m.
